Big changes are coming at Cadillac. The 2016 Cadillac CT6 is the harbinger of those changes. It heralds both the brand’s new naming system, new lightweight construction methods, and eventually a new family of engines. So what does that mean for the CTS, ATS and XTS?
They’re going away, but in different ways, reports GM Inside News. Speaking to new Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen at the New York Auto Show, the publication revealed that the large, front- and all-wheel drive XTS sedan will cease production once its life cycle comes to an end in 2019.
That makes sense. The rear-drive, more high-tech CT6 takes the cushy XTS’ place as the biggest Caddy sedan around, at least until they make a more direct S-Class/7-Series/A8 competitor, which is expected in the next few years. The XTS probably won’t be missed.
More interesting is what JDN had to say about the other sedans in the range:
“As we move into the future refining our sedan portfolio, there will be no direct successor to the CTS. There will be no direct successor to the ATS. There is no point to renaming those cars because in the future those cars will disappear,” said Johan de Nysschen at a private reveal last night for the Cadillac CT6.
The ATS and CTS will disappear? What does that mean exactly? Since they’re Cadillac’s competitors to the 3-Series and 5-Series, respectively, it’s hard to imagine a lineup without them.
My guess is that Cadillac will replace the ATS with more than one car, like something smaller to take on the A3 and CLA — which we already know they’re working on — and something a little bigger to fix complaints about its sparse rear seat room.
As for the CTS, it’s hard to imagine Cadillac without a 5-Series fighting sedan. I’m sure some CT-whatever sedan will fill that void somehow. As long as they keep the V, I’m okay with whatever they’re doing.
There is, however, bad news for the world’s funeral directors:
While retail customers likely won’t miss the XTS, one group most definitely will: coachbuilders of funeral cars and stretch limousines. “We will not have a car that will lend itself to these kind of modifications and we will probably withdrawal from those markets.”
Send me to my gravesite in an Escalade instead, please.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.